


Plans within Plans

by delilahdraken



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-30
Updated: 2011-07-30
Packaged: 2017-10-22 00:12:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/231470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delilahdraken/pseuds/delilahdraken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is how the time war ends...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Plans within Plans

Once upon a time oh so long ago, there was a man.

He was a traveller to far away places, always seeking new things to explore, to learn to see. So curious was he that there never was a time when every cell in his body did not scream out to the stars. Some called him an eternal wanderer, forever bound by his need to move.

For a while he lived happy. Then came the war.

They called it the last great war, the one war to end all wars, and the traveller fought in it. He fought hard. He fought well. He also lost more things dear to him than he wanted to contemplate.

Where their enemy was vicious and cruel in its battles, so were they. They destroyed beauty and memory and civilization. They destroyed near to everything, rebuilt it and smashed it to pieces all over again.

For the traveller this time was a close to hell than anything else. It burned what was left of his soul to smoking cinders, breaking a mind of adventure into empty mirrors yearning for darkness.

They, knowing he was their best warrior and their only chance of victory, saw this with dread. To grand him his wish was a step they couldn't afford. Thus they broke their own impenetrable rules and brought back the dead.

A cloned body, the mind ripped from the void and voila! There was their perfect little puppet. Of course, they also added something new to the mix so that, should the puppet decide to betray their useless orders, he would ensure their survival.

And so the Master returned to the Doctor.

The two played a charming game of cat and mouse which brought war's end closer than ever before, but also showed a dark evolution in their commanders. Those who were once peaceful had changed into the very thing they sought to defeat.

Obviously the Doctor found a way to stop the war, a proper solution for a problem left too long to fester. Something to finally, finally heal the old wounds. This solution, as most things do, came with a price.

He could not do it. The Doctor would gladly walk to his own death than let another do the same. This naïve do-gooder, this know-it-all chatter box, could not accept death, especially not the death of those he loved. So, he had to be diverted.

It fell to the Master to save the universe.

Oh, the irony! The one who would rather reign supreme and dirty his hands went out to die in heroic glory.

Once upon a time oh so long ago, there was a man.

He was everything special and maybe quite a bit insane, too. This man hid a message on his best friend's beloved ship. It was a message that was to be activated only if a certain puppeteer's strings were not cut completely, if the back-up plan were to happen.

In this message he would tell his friend of an empty body waiting to be filled with memories. He would also give directions as to where to find those memories in liquid form.

After this he would thank his friend for being such a good survivor.

  


 _When he wakes up it is to a grinning face crying its eyes out. Then he is hugged so long he starts to wonder if his lungs will go out of air soon._

 _“Why did you change my memories?” his dear friend asks._

 _“It would have been too easy otherwise,” is his answer._

 _All in all, he thinks, this was one of my better plans._


End file.
